The figure skater from Riverview Heights finished ninth in the senior men’s competition at the 2020 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships in Mississauga on Saturday. Markell, 19, was 11th after the short program and placed seventh in the free skate.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to finish my program and look up and see the audience standing up and applauding and that’s exactly what happened yesterday,” Markell posted on Facebook Sunday.

The longtime member of the Prescott Figure Skating Club finished 12th in last year’s nationals. He was junior champ in 2018 and won a silver in novice in 2016.

Roman Sadovsky won the 2020 senior men’s title.

Brockville-area native Alaine Chartrand, who won her second Canadian senior women’s championship in 2019, is not competing this season.